Privacy policy

Fihris is a reference manager, PDF reader and LaTeX authoring app for iPhone and iPad. Most of what you put into it never leaves your device. This page says exactly what does, when, and to whom.

Who is responsible for your data #

Fihris is made and operated by Obai Alnajjar, P.O. Box 43199, Jeddah 21561, Saudi Arabia, who is the data controller for everything described here.

Contact: [email protected]

What stays on your device, always #

• Your Library: papers, PDFs, metadata, tags and collections.
• Your highlights, underlines, strikethroughs, Apple Pencil ink, notes and manuscript drafts.
• The search index and the text embeddings Fihris builds over your Library. These are created on your device with Apple's Natural Language framework. They are never uploaded, on any plan, on any route.
• Questions answered on your device with Apple Intelligence.

Fihris also adds each paper's title, authors, year, venue, collections, tags and a short abstract snippet to your device's own system search (Spotlight) and Shortcuts, so you can find papers from outside the app. That index belongs to your device's operating system; it is not sent to us.

With iCloud sync on, which is free, and on by default when you are signed in to iCloud, this same data is also copied into your own private iCloud account, a private CloudKit database and ubiquity container that belongs to you. We cannot read it. It is not a server we operate, and Apple's private database is inaccessible to app developers by design.

There is no account and no sign-in in Fihris, and Fihris never asks for your name. What we can hold about you is pseudonymous: the purchase and usage records described below, which are keyed to an install identifier and an App Store transaction identifier, and an email address only if you choose to give us one.

We do not operate a server that stores or serves your papers. That is enforced by the architecture, not only by this page: the one server Fihris runs is described below, and it is built so that it cannot keep your papers even if it wanted to.

Where answers run, and what each route sends #

Fihris tries your device first. Four routes exist, and every screen tells you which one it will use before it sends anything.

1. On this device, with Apple Intelligence. Apple's on-device model, on an iPhone or iPad and iOS version that support Apple Intelligence, with Apple Intelligence turned on. Nothing leaves the device.

2. Apple's private cloud. Apple's Private Cloud Compute, where your device and region support it. Your question and the passages Fihris retrieved from your own papers are processed by Apple for that one request. Apple states that this data is not retained and is not available even to Apple's own staff. This route is disclosed in Settings ▸ AI; it is not a third-party route, so it does not ask for separate consent.

3. Fihris Intelligence (the subscription). Your question and the specific passages Fihris retrieved from your own Library are sent to Fihris's relay, a small server we operate, together with the titles and citation details of the papers those passages come from and, where the request needs them, your notes or highlights on those papers. A writing request sends your writing instruction, the unpublished text you selected and the neighbouring text shown for context. The consent card lists exactly which of these a request carries, including whole extracted paper text when applicable. Whole-text permission is scoped to the paper; you can use excerpts instead. The relay:

• never receives a PDF file. It receives selected excerpts or, when you allow it for that paper, the paper's whole extracted text, under a per-request input cap;
• never fetches anything from arXiv, a publisher or any other source on your behalf;
• keeps nothing of the content: no question, excerpt, whole extracted text, writing, answer or paper title is stored at the relay, in any environment. It is never written to a database, a log file or a backup there;
• forwards the request to Anthropic (the maker of Claude) to generate the answer, and streams the answer back to your device.

That "keeps nothing" is a statement about Fihris's relay only. It is not a claim about Anthropic. See the next paragraph for what happens at Anthropic's end, which is a different thing with a different answer.

What we hold about a relay request, and what Cloudflare holds #

Two different things, in two different places, with two different answers to "can you delete it?"

(a) Our ledger: Fihris holds it, and we can delete it on request. The relay keeps a small database, hosted on Cloudflare (Cloudflare D1), that exists so the subscription can be metered and abuse stopped. It holds: an opaque install identifier, the App Attest key registered to that install, your subscription's App Store transaction identifier, the current billing period and how much of the allowance it has used, any credit top-ups and what is left of them, per-hour and per-day credit totals, daily counts of requests and of refusals, and what Apple last told us about your subscription's status. For retries and refunds it may also hold, per request, an opaque request identifier, a one-way digest of the request, the task type, route, model and template version, the credits charged or refunded, a failure class and timestamps. It holds no question, no excerpt, no writing, no answer and no paper title. This is the data we can give you a copy of, correct, or delete: see "Your rights" below.

(b) Operational logs: Cloudflare holds them, and we cannot delete an individual line. To run the service at all, the relay writes operational events into Cloudflare's own logging systems (Cloudflare Workers Logs, and Cloudflare AI Gateway's metadata logs). They contain allowlisted technical metadata such as: the time, the event type, the opaque install identifier, the transaction identifier, the task type (for example "grounded question"), the model used, token counts, credits charged, refunded or rebated, how many papers were involved, how long it took, whether it succeeded, was refused or failed and why (an error class), and the true/false results of the automated scope and safety checks. They never contain your question, your excerpts, your writing or the answer. The relay is written so that only allowlisted metadata fields can be emitted at all, and there is deliberately no setting anywhere that would log the content.

Those lines live in Cloudflare's systems, are retained under Cloudflare's own retention and storage limits rather than ours, and age out on Cloudflare's schedule. We do not control that schedule and we cannot promise to delete one specific line on request. If you ask us to delete your data, we delete your ledger rows (a), and the log lines (b) fall away with Cloudflare's normal retention. We would rather tell you this plainly than imply a power over someone else's log store that we do not have.

Anthropic #

Anthropic acts as our processor for that one request. Anthropic is not us, and Anthropic's own privacy policy and terms, not this page, govern what Anthropic itself keeps. Anthropic states that it deletes standard API inputs and outputs within 30 days, with exceptions: where a different agreement applies, where it must enforce its usage policies, and where the law requires it. Fihris has no separate written retention agreement with Anthropic, so the standard terms apply, and we will not claim a shorter period here. Anthropic's current detail is at privacy.claude.com.

Cloudflare #

The relay runs on Cloudflare (Cloudflare Workers, Cloudflare AI Gateway and the Cloudflare D1 database that holds the ledger). Cloudflare is our hosting and gateway provider and a processor for this traffic. Every call the relay makes through the gateway is sent with the gateway's payload logging switched off, so the question, the excerpts and the answer are not written to Cloudflare's logs. What Cloudflare does log and retain is the metadata in (b) above, under its own retention terms.

4. Your own Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT account. Only if you connect your own API key, from Anthropic (Claude), Google (Gemini) or OpenAI (ChatGPT). Nothing is sent until you approve an on-screen consent card that names the provider and lists exactly what would be sent. This route goes straight from your device to that provider using your key; Fihris's relay is never involved, and your own account pays for it. Your key is stored in the iOS Keychain on your device only.

On this route a request can carry more than on the relay: the highest-fidelity citation mode sends the full text of the papers you ask about to your provider, and a writing request sends your instruction, selected writing and nearby text. The consent card says which before anything is sent. What the provider keeps is governed by your own agreement with that provider.

Every route past your device is your choice. You can always decline. Where Apple Intelligence or Apple's private cloud is available, Fihris can use it instead; where neither is available, or the question is too large for them, declining can leave that question unanswered.

Consent #

Before the first send on Fihris Intelligence or on your own key, Fihris shows a consent card naming the route, the processor, and exactly what will leave the device: your question, how many excerpts from how many papers covering how many pages, or the full text of the papers where your own key's whole-paper mode is used, and, where applicable, paper titles and citation details, notes, highlights, your writing instruction and the selected and neighbouring text of a draft. Nothing is sent before you approve it. You can approve once, approve for a collection, switch to Apple's private cloud where it is available, or cancel. Consent choices can be reset in Settings ▸ AI.

If what Fihris sends ever widens, the consent card is rewritten and every existing approval is invalidated, so you are asked again.

The "Sent to your account" log #

After every consented send to Fihris Intelligence or to your own AI provider, Fihris writes an entry to a log on your device: which route was used, the titles of the papers involved, how many pages and excerpts, whether whole papers were sent, and token counts. It never contains the question text or the answer text. Answers from Apple's private cloud are not third-party sends and are not listed there; Settings ▸ AI explains that route separately. You can read the log, and clear it, in Settings ▸ AI ▸ Sent to your account. This log is never sent anywhere. It exists so you can audit what Fihris has done on your behalf.

Purchases #

Fihris is sold through Apple's App Store. Apple is the merchant. Apple processes the payment and gives Fihris a signed transaction record, which the relay uses to verify your entitlement and meter your credits.

We never see your name, your card number or your billing address. Apple does not give app developers that information. What we hold is the transaction identifier and your credit usage: the ledger described in (a) above. Apple's own privacy policy covers what Apple collects to process the purchase.

Device verification (App Attest) #

Requests to the relay carry an Apple App Attest assertion: a signature from a key that Fihris generated in your device's secure hardware and that Apple attested when it was registered. It lets the relay check that a request comes from an instance of the Fihris app on an Apple device rather than from a script. It is a check on the app, not on you: it carries no name, no account and no identity, and it is used only to stop someone using the relay without paying for it.

Analytics #

Fihris contains no analytics SDK, no advertising SDK, no crash-reporting service and no tracking of any kind, and nothing about how you use the app is collected for marketing, advertising or profiling. What we do record is the metering, reliability, cost and abuse metadata already described in (a) and (b) above, for Fihris Intelligence requests only. Nothing else reads it.

Email, if you give it us #

Fihris works without an email address. If you give one, in Settings ▸ About ▸ Email from Fihris or on a page on this site, we send a confirmation link first, and nothing else is sent until you open it.

• What we keep: the address, the topics you switched on (terms and policy notices, product updates, the newsletter), when you confirmed, which version of the consent text you saw, and whether you signed up in the app or on the website. No name, and nothing about your library, papers, notes, questions or subscription. The list is never linked to the Fihris Intelligence credit ledger: the app sends no install or transaction identifier with it.
• Who holds it: Resend, our email provider, in the United States, under its data processing agreement and standard contractual clauses. Resend receives your address as soon as it sends the confirmation email, before you confirm, and keeps its own record of that delivery under its terms; your address joins the list only when you open the link. The website functions that pass your request on keep nothing; the confirmation link carries the request itself.
• How long: until you unsubscribe from everything or ask us to delete it. An address that unsubscribes is kept only as "unsubscribed" so it is not emailed again, unless you ask for full deletion.
• How to stop or delete it: the unsubscribe link in any email, the preference page it opens, Stop all email and delete my address in the app, or fihris.app/comms/manage. Each deletion is confirmed by a link we email to that address.

If you write to [email protected] or use the data request form, your message and the address you write from reach us by email; the form's message is delivered through Resend and is not stored by the website.

Who else sees your data, and why #

Some scholarly sources ask apps to send a contact address with their requests, so they can write to a heavy user instead of blocking them. If you enter one in Settings ▸ Sources ▸ Polite-pool email, Fihris sends it with its requests to OpenAlex, Unpaywall, Crossref, and PubMed and PubMed Central. If you leave it empty, Fihris sends its own address, [email protected], or none.

Apart from that address, if you set one, none of these sources and providers receives an identifier from Fihris that ties your searches or requests to you, other than the transaction identifier the relay sends to Cloudflare's gateway as metadata and what your own key's provider knows about your own account.

Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Cloudflare and Resend operate infrastructure outside Saudi Arabia. What you send on those routes may therefore be processed, and for the periods described above retained, on servers outside the Kingdom.

This transfer happens only when you choose Fihris Intelligence, connect your own key, or give us an email address, on the same performance-of-service basis (PDPL cross-border transfer regulation, Article 29) that lets any cloud-backed feature work at all. We have not yet put a data-transfer agreement (such as standard contractual clauses) in place with Anthropic, Google, OpenAI or Cloudflare specific to Saudi Arabia; this is being reviewed with Saudi counsel before the app is submitted for review in the Kingdom.

Children #

Fihris is made for university students and researchers. It is rated 16+ on the App Store (17+ on systems before iOS 26), because its built-in browser can open any website. It is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect data from them beyond what this page already describes. There are no accounts, no profiles, no advertising, and nothing here is collected for advertising. If you believe a child has used Fihris Intelligence without appropriate permission, write to [email protected] and we will address it.

Your rights #

Saudi Arabia's Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) gives you the right to know what is processed about you and why, to get a copy of it, to have it corrected, to have it deleted, and to restrict or object to processing. You can also complain to the Saudi Data & Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA).

Because Fihris has no account, what we hold that is tied to you is limited to:

• the ledger described in (a) above, including its per-request accounting records;
• the operational metadata in Cloudflare's logs described in (b), which we cannot delete line by line;
• your email address and topics at Resend, only if you gave them to us.

We do not retain a server-side copy of your Library, notes or papers. Content you choose to send on an AI route is handled under the processor's terms described above.

To exercise any of these rights for the ledger, email [email protected] with your App Store transaction identifier. You can find it in your purchase confirmation email from Apple, or in Settings ▸ AI ▸ Fihris Intelligence. We use that identifier to find your ledger rows; we have no other way to identify you, and we will not ask you to create an account in order to prove who you are. For your email address, write from that address, or use the links described under "Email, if you give it us"; no transaction identifier is needed.

What a deletion request does and does not reach. We delete the ledger rows in (a), and the email record at Resend if you ask for it. We cannot individually delete the operational log lines in (b), because they sit in Cloudflare's own logging systems under Cloudflare's retention rather than ours; they age out on Cloudflare's schedule. Those lines contain no question, excerpt or answer. If you need a firmer answer than that for a formal request, say so in your email and we will go back to Cloudflare about it rather than guess here.

If you are elsewhere in the world, similar rights (for example under the GDPR, where it applies) can be exercised the same way. Fihris is offered on the App Store in every country and region Apple serves, including the European Union.

Changes to this page #

If what Fihris Intelligence sends ever widens, a new task type, a new kind of paper content, a new processor, this page, the in-app consent card and the App Store privacy label all change together, before the change ships, and the consent card asks you again. The date at the top of this page is updated whenever it changes, and material changes are announced in the app and by email to anyone subscribed to terms and policy notices.

Contact #

[email protected]